Cedar

I think those little fish are peppered all the way down the river...which is a good sign actually cuz it means their spawning but the bigger fish are SCARCE...I was lucky to get a cpl 16-18"ers over the past two weeks and I've caught quite a few fish but there seems to be a gap I haven't caught but maybe one in the 12-16" range so there either below 10 maybe 11" or bigger than 15-16" and my buddies who are fishing it as well have noticed the same thing, hardly any fish have been caught in the 12-16" range a lot of those little fish and a few over 16" and all of us I personally know fishing the river grew up in Maple Valley so we know the river well and those buddies I've talked to have fished it this year from landsburg to renton as I have...

I think those little fish are peppered all the way down the river...which is a good sign actually cuz it means their spawning but the bigger fish are SCARCE...I was lucky to get a cpl 16-18"ers over the past two weeks and I've caught quite a few fish but there seems to be a gap I haven't caught but maybe one in the 12-16" range so there either below 10 maybe 11" or bigger than 15-16" and my buddies who are fishing it as well have noticed the same thing, hardly any fish have been caught in the 12-16" range a lot of those little fish and a few over 16" and all of us I personally know fishing the river grew up in Maple Valley so we know the river well and those buddies I've talked to have fished it this year from landsburg to renton as I have...

I believe that's the exact case. In the summer (i.e., only the short time that it's open), the flows are too low, there's not enough deep pools, and the water temps rise due to a lack of vegetative cover. The fact that the lower couple of miles are heavily channelized I'm sure doesn't improve things. Likely fish come up from the lake to spawn, or follow the large runs of Sockeye up in the fall. But otherwise choose to spend their time in the lake.

Whenever I've caught a big fish, it's always been right after opening day. I always thought that the larger ones just get poached out by summer but now I think they just have better places to be and things to do.

Jsly,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge about the cedar. I enjoyed your posts. The cedar is not a secret, so no worries of getting too many folks on the river. I fished the slow section below the library a few times out of my drift boat 4 years ago. I encountered a few powerbait fishermen and called wdfw on them. I bet the lower section gets heavy poaching. Just a fact of life fishing in urban areas. Again, I enjoy your posts - armchair fishing.

I believe that's the exact case. In the summer (i.e., only the short time that it's open), the flows are too low, there's not enough deep pools, and the water temps rise due to a lack of vegetative cover. The fact that the lower couple of miles are heavily channelized I'm sure doesn't improve things. Likely fish come up from the lake to spawn, or follow the large runs of Sockeye up in the fall. But otherwise choose to spend their time in the lake.

Whenever I've caught a big fish, it's always been right after opening day. I always thought that the larger ones just get poached out by summer but now I think they just have better places to be and things to do.

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I've caught most of the 18 inch or larger fish in June as well, but it's no hard and fast rule. The largest I landed, 23-inches, and a real slab of a rainbow, was in late August in a deep pool where I also landed a 19-incher. Now, that said, the Sockeye were in early, so it could be speculated that the big bows were following the run up from the lake.

Jsly,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge about the cedar. I enjoyed your posts. The cedar is not a secret, so no worries of getting too many folks on the river. I fished the slow section below the library a few times out of my drift boat 4 years ago. I encountered a few powerbait fishermen and called wdfw on them. I bet the lower section gets heavy poaching. Just a fact of life fishing in urban areas. Again, I enjoy your posts - armchair fishing.

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Thank you, I was just sharing my experience and yeah on one of my floats down from landsburg my brother and I encountered a guy fishing off of a train bridge a good 15-20ft above the water and I saw a case of coors and a box of worms next to him, we asked him what he was doing and his response "oh using a spinner but can only catch small fish so now I'm wormin' it"...we didn't have phones and so no call to wdfw we figured by the time we got done with our trip he'd have been long gone since we were still a cpl hrs from our landing point but he was the only guy I encountered fishing with a spinning rod...One of our access points is right next to a guys property there's a bridge and a public trail that are also right there, and the first day I put in I guess I walked on his property even though it didn't look like his land, but he saw me getting ready to go out making a few warm up cast's into the pool I was about to take off from so he came over, beer in hand, to chat me up...said he fishes n just lets out as much line as he can with a lure on the end (so I assumed spinning rod) and sits on his back porch until he gets a hit....said his neighbors across the river catch fish but on fly's...huh go figure...and then as I was going back for the last piece of my gear out of the car and take off, as I was walking on what appeared to be public property he says to me "ya know this is my land, I don't mind if you use the trail on the other side but this is my property" caught me off guard cuz he seemed nice when we spoke, so I apologized said I was unaware this was his land cuz I had seen people putting in there in summers past to just do a river float in inner tubes and rafts and also people walking there to get to the bridge and jumping from the bridge I was starting under into the pool below...but there is a public trail on the opposite side of the bridge and said I would use that from now on...So I didn't call wdfw on him either since I had accidentally used his property, I guess, to walk to the river...The bridge is literally a stones throw from his back yard and so is the the public trail but it's a little harder to get down to the water from the trail on the opposite side of the bridge....but yes your more than likely going to encounter some power bait/"wormin' it" lure fishing guys who are fishing from bridges??? still don't get that one, or their back yards...One thing that can turn people off about the cedar and I totally get this, is the amount of population along the water front...it can be tricky to fish the good water when it's in between two houses, I guess u can walk down the water and fish it but I try my absolute best to stay off of ANYONE'S private property...Don't need drunk bubba throwing hands at me cuz I stepped on his grass...The lower section has less houses so it's easier to find spots on the river where you don't have to risk trespassing to continue down the river...I'm lucky enough to know a few people who actually live on the river from growing up in the area so friends or friends parents have river front property and never seem to have a problem with me using there backyard as a landing or take off point but I know not everyone is as lucky...

I've always wondered how big of an impact the troll fishery in the big lake has on the overall health of the Lake Wa/Cedar cutthroat population. I recall that it wasn't a big thing until just recently (last few years). With a five-fish limit, increasing popularity of the fishery, year round season, derbies, etc I can't help but imagine that those fish get hit hard.

I've always wondered how big of an impact the troll fishery in the big lake has on the overall health of the Lake Wa/Cedar cutthroat population. I recall that it wasn't a big thing until just recently (last few years). With a five-fish limit, increasing popularity of the fishery, year round season, derbies, etc I can't help but imagine that those fish get hit hard.

I think the bait fisherman/spinner fisherman are and will always will be the problem. I run into 1 or 2 a week, worst of all most are pulling out large fish, some are even keeping them. I have fished the river since it has opened and have found the fishing to drop off a little each year. The dry fly fishing has suffered the worst. I went out last night from 7-10 and didn't see a single rising fish.
That being said their are fish to be caught. I have caught 5 fish that were 4 to 5 pounds this year, including this one. Sorry my cell camera is so crappy. I wear a size 16 wading boot just to put it into perspective.

Here's the thing: WDFW doesn't give a crap about the trout population. They care about the steelhead returns. After it closed the trout rebounded, became plentiful and large, and what was a rebounding steel population started to curve back to decline. They figured out that there were shit tons of big residents gobbling up fry and smolt and eggs...

So, they opened it up to special regs c&r to appease US AND with the intent that poor fish handling and poaching would result in the necessary reduction in big piscavorial residents to bring that all important steelhead run curving back up in the right direction.

All that said, the real bitch of it is that there is genetic share between the residents and the steel. So, the strategy of bringing down the large fish count plays contrary to mother nature's preservation tactic of interbreeding and resident / anadromous mix. Allowing poachers (and idiots who take pics of fish on the bank) to kill off the big bows is reducing the number of big players that could successfully spawn with steel.

I think the bait fisherman/spinner fisherman are and will always will be the problem. I run into 1 or 2 a week, worst of all most are pulling out large fish, some are even keeping them. I have fished the river since it has opened and have found the fishing to drop off a little each year. The dry fly fishing has suffered the worst. I went out last night from 7-10 and didn't see a single rising fish.
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That being said their are fish to be caught. I have caught 5 fish that were 4 to 5 pounds this year, including this one. Sorry my cell camera is so crappy. I wear a size 16 wading boot just to put it into perspective.

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I can't decide whether I'm more impressed with the rainbow, or your 16 wading boot